As most of you should be aware, Marco Rubio made comments the other day saying he doesn’t believe in man made climate change. He also strongly signaled he’ll be running for President in 2016. That election will be the first one in which I’ll be able to vote since I’ll be a citizen by then, so I decided to write the Senator a letter, mainly for the purpose of seeing what, if any, reply I get.

Dear Senator Rubio,

It was brought to my attention the other day that you are seriously considering running for President in 2016.

I know you come from a jurisdiction rich in immigrants. I myself am an immigrant, I’ve been in America since 2008. As it so happens, The 2016 Presidential election will bet the first one I vote in as an American Citizen.

I’m certain you would appreciate my support in that regard and I do have generally conservative leanings, but I am concerned over certain comments you recently made concerning climate change.

Now let me be clear, I have no desire to engage in a scientific debate with you. Neither you nor I are trained scientists so such a prospect would be pointless. I also have no desire to engage in a theological debate. Rather, I’m simply seeking clarification on your belief so I can make an informed decision on whether or not to support your Presidential ambitions.

Let’s assume for the moment your assumption is correct, that humans are largely not responsible for climate change.

Do you not agree that we, as not only as responsible human beings but also responsible Christians, are called upon to be good stewards of the earth? I like to think the Lord gave us dominion over all creatures for a specific reason: He wanted us to look after them and treat them with respect, so that we might cultivate and develop them for continued use over many generations.

I’m wondering if you’ve ever thought much about God’s instructions to Noah prior to the great flood:

“You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you” - Genesis 6:19, NIV

If God is indeed all powerful He didn’t actually need Noah to accomplish this. He could have repopulated all the animals Himself after the Flood ended and merely sent only Noah and his family on the ark.

But not only did He instruct Noah to take the animals with him, He instructed him to keep them ALIVE. A major reason for this was to underscore the important role humans played in looking after the creatures of this earth.

We have never and can never abdicate that responsibility. The covenants we made with God thousands of years ago are still valid today. The duty we have to care for this earth is non-negotiable.

Think about it this way: You work for a large corporation in a middle management role. The big decisions are of course, made by the CEO and executive management. You’re likely to have little, if any, input into them for the most part. You must accept that, it’s part of what goes along with a command structure.

But even though you may have little influence in the decisions made at the top, you also have very important responsibilities and duties of your own that must be seen to in order for both you individually, and the company as a whole, to prosper and grow.

It’s the same with this planet. God will do things as He sees fit but even though you have limited control over His actions, you still have important roles as a small part of a large plan.

Now at this point you may be thinking: I get what you’re saying, but looking after livestock and corporate responsibility have little if anything to do with climate science.

That may be technically true, but where this all ties together is the fact that being a good steward/good shepherd over the earth does not ONLY mean taking good care of the animals that are here. It means taking care of the environment itself and the natural resources it contains.

Jesus commands us to love one another. Loving someone means, among other things, providing them an adequate environment to develop and realize the full limits of their potential.

We do ourselves and our children and grandchildren no good when we squander our valuable resources. Many of those resources are complex, delicate and extremely difficult if not outright impossible to replace when they are gone.

Regardless of where one comes down on climate change, I believe it’s both a morally and biblically sound argument that humans have a responsibility to respect and care for this planet and the creatures on it.

To abandon that harms not only our future, but our relationship with God.

I hope you hold similar beliefs, because I’m sure you’d love for my first ever Presidential vote to be for you.

Admitting the problem is always the first step in any rehabilitation process. And in the aftermath of Mitt Romney’s defeat in the 2012 presidential election, Republicans across the country were doing just that. Among the GOP’s elected officials, strategists, and activists, there was widespread acknowledgment that the Republican Party suffered from a disease that would not quickly be cured.

Nowhere was this admission clearer than inside the Republican National Committee, where Chairman Reince Priebus appointed a five-person task force—the Growth and Opportunity Project—to identify the party’s foremost problems and explore potential solutions. As this RNC autopsy was underway, we at National Journal conducted our own post-mortem, speaking with several members of that RNC panel, along with dozens more Republicans nationwide. The result was “A 12-Step Program for the Republican Party,” prescribing a road to rehabilitation for the GOP.

Heywood JabloemeI think that the imoression that I have a crush could be due to the fact that I like pointing out that the beliefs regarding Snowden, here at LGF. are almost exactly the opposite of that of the public at ...

This analysis, and others, is probably correct that the Republicans don’t mathematically need to approve thier Histpanic vote to win national elections. That is, if the manage to get a larger portion of the “White” vote but if you consider the fact that the lost the Women’s vote (to include white women) by 20 points, and lost younger whites then it looks bad for them.

So yes please, keep taking people like Brit Hume’s advice!

“And I am absolutely convinced that this trope that you’re hearing that says that if the Republicans don’t go for immigration reform much as the Senate has done, they’ll never win another presidential election. Oh, baloney,” Hume said during an appearance on the conservative cable news channel. “If you look at the statistics, you find there was one significant bloc of voters who turned out in smaller numbers this time in a major way — way below expectations, below even their ‘08 turnout — and that was white voters. Now, that doesn’t mean that if they turned out thatRomney would have gotten them all but it shows you that this Hispanic vote, which is I think now 8.5 percent of the electorate or something like that, is not nearly as important as, still, as the white vote, which is above 70 percent.”

Hume added, “So, if you look at it from an ethnic point of view, that addresses the question of whether you need to get right with the Hispanics.”

moderatelyradicalliberalActually he is right. I think it is obvious that the GOP is going to go with being the white people's party. Instead of trying their share of the non=white vote they are going to test if Democrats can lose ...

The Republicans seem to be doing all they can to get Hillary Clinton elected in 2016 by supporting legislation that starves babies after insisting they be born and other acts of foolishness. So it is interesting that they are also - three years out from the next presidential election - starting a Stop Hillary 2016 movement.

Republicans are terrified of Hillary, and for good reason. Against their field of frauds and lackwits, Hillary strides like a Titan. Do they really expect Rand Paul to do better than looking like an errant school boy debating the former first lady and secretary of state?

Many of us look forward to it, to watching Hillary metaphorically slap Paul around. The ever-quotable Paul seems to be doing all he can today to set up his humiliating political demise tomorrow.

jamesfirecatMuch like how there should be a law against playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving, there should be one against campaigning against a presidential candidate who is not the encumbant before midterms.

You would expect a poll company to say this, but my own totally anectdotal experiences with Twitter and twitter barrages during highly charged events bear this finding out. I’ve found that twitter tends to be extensively more negative and will usually either spin wildly right or left depending on issue or hashtag.

The reaction on Twitter to major political events and policy decisions often differs a great deal from public opinion as measured by surveys. This is the conclusion of a year-long Pew Research Center study that compared the results of national polls to the tone of tweets in response to eight major news events, including the outcome of the presidential election, the first presidential debate and major speeches by Barack Obama.

At times the Twitter conversation is more liberal than survey responses, while at other times it is more conservative. Often it is the overall negativity that stands out. Much of the difference may have to do with both the narrow sliver of the public represented on Twitter as well as who among that slice chose to take part in any one conversation.

A More Liberal Twitter Reaction to Some Events

In some instances, the Twitter reaction was more pro-Democratic or liberal than the balance of public opinion. For instance, when a federal court ruled last February that a California law banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional - a case that is now coming before the Supreme Court - the reaction on Twitter was quite positive. Twitter conversations about the ruling were much more positive than negative (46% vs. 8%). But public opinion, as measured in a national poll, ran the other direction: Of those who had heard about the ruling, just 33% were very happy or pleased with it, while 44% were disappointed or angry.

Despite disputing the declaration by the electoral commission that Uhuru Kenyatta won the presidential election, Prime Minister Raila Odinga has urged Kenyans to remain peaceful.

He urged Kenyans to await the decision of the Supreme Court on the election and abide by the law.

He disputed the declaration of Uhuru as President-elect, citing “massive irregularities” that marred the votes and subsequent tallying.

The CORD leader claimed there was massive tampering of the results and some figures were cooked and promised to provide evidence.

“Let the Supreme Court determine whether the result announced by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is lawful. We are confident the court will restore the faith of Kenyans in the democratic rule if law,” Raila said.

The Premier did not indicate the day they intend to move to court but according to the Constitution, they have seven days from on Saturday when Uhuru was declared president, to file the petition. The Supreme Court will then have 14 days to hear the dispute and make a ruling.

Bob DillonUhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner in a very close presidential election. But he is due to stand trial for “crimes against humanity.” More: Kenyan Election: Kenyatta Declared Winner, Amid Dilemma for Western Allies

You’ve probably moved on from the 2012 presidential election. It’s clear that the Republican Party is trying to. Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio both gave high-profile speeches Tuesday in which they showed they had learned the lessons of Mitt Romney’s loss. “Both parties tend to divide Americans into ‘our voters’ and ‘their voters,’ ” said Ryan, sounding a little bit like Barack Obama circa 2008 and nothing like Mitt Romney, who was secretly recorded telling donors that 47 percent of the country wouldn’t vote for him because they considered themselves victims. “Republicans must steer far clear of that trap.” Sen. Rubio spoke at the same dinner as Ryan. Rubio mentioned the middle class 34 times in his half-hour speech, which may qualify him for a special badge of some sort.*

Before you move on to 2016, though, there is one important trove of information about the last presidential race that was just made available. Harvard’s Institute of Politics has released the audio of last week’s Campaign Decision Makers Conference. This is the powwow of the vanquished and victorious that has taken place every four years at Harvard since 1972. The top strategists from both sides sit across vast stretches of white tablecloth and discuss the battle they just waged.

Everyone was showered, shaven, and showed the benefits of sleep they had missed for the last 18 months. Most were on the cusp of long vacations in pricey locales. As a result, mostly everyone was polite (damn it!). Still, it was informative.

Why revisit Thanksgiving when we’ve already hung half the Christmas lights? Because the shape for the final script of 2012 will determine how the participants in the 2016 conference run their races. Those of us who participated in the gathering were asked to keep our notebooks closed until Harvard posted the material. Now that it’s available to all, here are the most illuminating disclosures:

Now that the presidential election is finally over, it’s time to be blunt: The extreme nastiness of the discourse on Israel, coming mostly from those who opposed President Obama, did a great disservice to the American Jewish community. Well-funded advocacy groups, shadowy organizations and wealthy individuals poisoned the atmosphere and polarized the conversation. They resorted to fear tactics that harmed reputations and paid little heed to facts and fairness.

And it didn’t even work.

So before the next round of campaigning begins, some communal soul-searching is in order. Passionate debate is to be expected when something as significant as Israel’s future is at stake. But it’s time to say that the kind of meanness and mendacity on display this year has no home in the mainstream Jewish community.

A few examples: In March, the Emergency Committee for Israel ran a full-page (and mighty expensive) ad in The New York Times excoriating two small, liberal organizations for some things their staff members wrote. It used quotes from two Jewish leaders without their permission and out of context; both men unequivocably denounced the ad and ECI. The American Jewish Committee, also mentioned in the ad, released a statement saying it, too, was never consulted and wanted readers to know it.

This was only one of many newspaper ads, giant billboards and videos produced by ECI, which as a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization is not obliged to disclose its donors. But we know that ECI is run by a small board that includes William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and a regular of the Sunday talk shows and Jewish events, where he presents a far more amiable persona than is evident in ECI’s handiwork.

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